-──────────────── ▄██▄ ──────── ▀█████▄ -── ███ ███ ─ ▄██▄ ▀█████▄ ──── ▐███ ███▌ ▀██▀ ▄██████▄ -─ ████ ████ ▄▄▄ ▄██████████▄ ▐█████████▌ ███▌▐████▀ ▀████▀ ███████████ ████ ██▀ ─── ▀▀ ▐█████ █████▌▐███ ▀ ██████ ██████ ▀██ ────────── ███████ ███████▄ █ -.2ooo.- ─────── ▄▄▄ ──────────────── "HiGH ▀ iNTELLiGeNCE tRoLLS" _______________________________________________________________________ a r t i s t : Gebhard Ullmann t i t l e : Kreuzberg Park East d a t e : 1997 l a b e l : Soul Note g e n r e : Jazz r l s. d a t e : nov.-2004 t r a c k s : 08 b i t r a t e : VBRkbps s i z e : 99,3 MB _______________________________________________________________________ recorded on may 2 and 3, 1997 at "tedesco recording studios", new jersey, mixed on august 29, 1998 at "sound on sound", new york city engineer: jon rosenberg mastered at "disctronics", tribiano - milano engineer: aldo borrelli producer: gebhard ullmann executive producer: flavio bonandrini gebhard ullmann - tenor and soprano sax, bass clarinet ellery eskelin - tenor saxophone drew gress - bass phil haynes - drums liner notes kreuzberg park east, bill shoemaker (november 1998) the migratory patterns of the matured jazz artist are a combination of established habits and unpredictable anomalies. annual routes like the early spring west coast run, the late june-early july trans-canadian marathon, and the fall european circuit, are flecked with one-offs flinging him to any corner of the planet. despite their intricacies, these journeys generally serve basic survival needs. often, the routes are refined by artistic criteria -- a pianist in vancouver, a drummer in chicago, a tenor player in london -- but are insufficient to alter the basic hit-and-run nature of the itinerary. rarely, an artist is able to create a situation that resembles a seasonal residency. this is quite distinct from a traditional expatriation, exemplified by americans like steve lacy and europeans like david holland. an extended hang is a more accurate description of its duration and its spirit. it is a chance for an artist to blend into a scene, savor it, and integrate its essences into his work. and then, most importantly, move on, as the artistic goals of such an enterprise is limited to defining and refining a distinct aspect of an evolving multi-faceted body of work. intriguingly, a growing number of european artists are lighting in us cities for this purpose. contrary to stereotype, they are not, as a rule, supported by a governmental agency who sees the endeavor within the context of field research; more often than not, the artist has simply scraped together enough dough for a plane ticket, and has taken up a colleague's offer of a spare room. the clock is ticking as soon as they hit town; there are only weeks, perhaps a few months, to explore, network, compose, rehearse, play a few gigs, and make at least several trips back to the drawing board to rethink the entire proposition. gebhard ullmann has taken this risk, traveling to brooklyn from his home base in berlin on a semi-regular basis since the early `90s. the benefits have been substantial. in addition to a significant ongoing collaboration with ellery eskelin, drew gress, and phil haynes (first documented on the `95 soul note disc, the aptly titled basement research), ullmann has formed a formidable quartet with pianist michael jefry stevens, bassist joe fonda, and drummer matt wilson. in each of these settings, ullmann has proven himself to be conversant and compatible with the sensibilities that are fast moving to the forefront of american jazz. ullmann, however, has not sacrificed his berliner identity in the process. on its `98 eponymous songlines disc, ullmann's seemingly ever-growing, winds-plus-accordion ensemble ta lam evokes both the berlin of bertolt brecht and kurt weill and the city's post-war industrial bleakness. his long-standing duo with guitarist andreas willers, expanded to a trio with haynes for the `97 nabel disc, trad corrosion, explores the type of brief counter-intuitive statements that give brecht's plays their jarring rhythms. ullmann also has a vital connection to two pillars of cold war-era german jazz, bassist gunter lenz and reed player ernst-ludwig petrowsky, via his membership in the former's ensemble, springtime. it is inevitable, however, that these geographically-pegged aspects of ullmann's work would integrate. unsurprisingly, touring has been a signal process; during the past two years, ullmann led ta lam zehn (the 10-piece version of the group) on a watershed north american tour, and fronted his brooklyn-based two tenors quartet in a series of european dates. these emerging touring patterns are emblematic of a deeper cross-pollination of ideas in ullmann's music: place as a musical compass; the portability of place through music; the merging of places, and their respective associations, through music. this cross-pollination is succinctly encapsulated in the title of this recording -- kreuzberg park east -- an amalgam of ullmann's addresses in berlin and brooklyn. in some general ways, kreuzberg park east picks up where basement research left off. again, ullmann's compositions entail a wide range of approaches to meshing notated materials and improvised space, all of which have comparable gravity within the program. the interplay between ullmann, eskelin, gress, and haynes continues to undermine the notion that jazz is a music of foreground, mid-ground, and background elements. and, most importantly, kreuzberg park east meets an important criterion for an ensemble's second album; it echoes its predecessor just enough to connect the two discs, while staking out more than enough new ground to establish its own identity. from the opening strains of "blaues lied" (the only piece not written in early `97 for this date; a version recorded with willers utilizing flute, tenor saxophone, and prepared guitars was included on the `92 nabel disc, suite noire), it is obvious that this cross-pollination is far from an academic exercise. ullmann and eskelin know how to give the piece's thematic materials a breathy, slow-burn intensity, triggering the get-down uptake in the brain stems of their listeners, and drawing them out of their left brain dominated mindsets. as their compact, riffish lines spool out in different directions across a languorous pulse, it becomes clear that this is music to get inside of, to meld with, to be transported by. almost paradoxically, ullmann's bold sequencing is a major factor in sustaining this sense of engagement throughout the program. he creates a track-by-track twisting of perspective, displaying a command of compositional devices that, in less worldly hands, would produce contrived music. the approach is condensed in the title composition; in evoking a sunday afternoon in the park near his berlin apartment, ulmann cogently juxtaposes crisply stated rapid-fire staccato passages and open-ended sections which veer from honey-dripping blues to a pungent turkish music distillate. the title piece also summarizes two compositional strengths ullmann demonstrates throughout the program: the subtle, unforced tapping of idiomatic essences (such as the caribbean-tinged strut of "the t. t. walk") and the ability to make inviting musical statements from seemingly arid compositional propositions (the weave of three lines, each comprised of 27 quarter notes, on "almost twenty-eight" is a case in point). kreuzberg park east also fully conveys ullmann's strengths as an improviser. ullmann represents an intriguing nexus between the respective contributions to the tenor lexicon made by americans and germans. ullmann has the razor-sharp diction and focused intensity that extends the trajectory established by germans such as petrowsky, gerd dudek, and heinz sauer. like eskelin, he is also adept at allusive banter and swerving off on luminous tangents, traits exemplified by the likes of sonny rollins and archie shepp. additionally, ullmann hands in distinctive performances on soprano saxophone and bass clarinet; it is no small feat that his work on these horns is not shrouded by the long shadows of lacy, wayne shorter, or eric dolphy. gebhard ullmann seems destined to a life of jazz migration. already, the berlin to brooklyn run has branched out in various directions. yet, as his future travels are charted, kreuzberg park east will surely remain at the center of the map. _______________________________________________________________________ 01-01 - Blaues Lied [05:15] 02-02 - Kreuzberg Park East [08:23] 03-03 - Meltemα [08:19] 04-04 - The T.T. Walk [07:01] 05-05 - Flutist with Hat and Shoe [04:58] 06-06 - Almost Twenty-Eight [08:58] 07-07 - Those 4R [08:16] 08-08 - Blue Trees and Related Objects [04:58] ------- 56:08 min _______________________________________________________________________